(Ed.
Note: Since this review was published, DiskJockey
has been updated for Windows Vista compatibility)

First,
let's get a couple of things straight. DiskJockey
File Viewer is not just a file viewer. It's actually
the grand successor to DiskJockey 2000, which makes
it a file manager, file viewer, ZIP utility, encryption/decryption
utility, mini web browser, and FTP client. There
are no individual modules here mind you. The DiskJockey
components are seamlessly integrated in a unified
interface that provides all the control most people
will ever need over the files stored on their computers
and on the Internet.

There
are a few other file managers out there—the
competition is stiff, no doubt about it—and
in order to compete, each product has to shine
in some area(s) in order to distinguish itself
from the rabble. DiskJockey File Viewer shines
in the (you guessed it) file viewing department.
That it's also a terrific replacement for the inefficient
and uninspiring Windows Explorer is a bonus. The
question is, do you really need a file manager
and viewer? The short answer is Yes, you certainly
do. There are a lot of good reasons.

The
average home computer contains approximately 58,000
files occupying 20GB of hard drive space. If there's
a digital photographer in the house, make that
an average of 62,000 files occupying 30GB of hard
drive space. If there's a digital photographer
and a digital video hobbyist in the house, make
that 75,000 files occupying 60GB of hard drive
space. Typical office computers average 30,000
files occupying 8GB to 10GB of hard drive space.
These numbers should help you understand why Microsoft
has to do something to speed up file searches in
Windows. The Windows file indexing service is a
terrible resource hog and noticeably slows down
systems when it's active. But finding files is
just part of the equation. The most important thing
is viewing the files you find. More often than
not, especially when it comes to browsing images
and documents, all we want to do is quickly scan
through a folder of files, quickly viewing each
one in turn in order to find the file we want (often
because simply looking at our poor choices of file
names doesn't tell us much). It makes sense then
that having a file manager and viewer under one
roof is a good thing. DiskJockey File Viewer is
built on that premise.

DiskJockey,
in one form or another, has been around since 1996 and
loyal users have enjoyed regular updates. I reviewed DiskJockey
File Viewer v4 release 1.03. I installed and ran the program
on a Pentium 4 Celeron 1.7GHz computer with 512MB RAM and
running Windows XP Professional. This particular computer
is a daily driver for two different people and sees a lot
of use as a general file manager, photo editing platform
and so on.

DiskJockey
performs all of the standard file management functions:
copying, moving, deleting, renaming, creating folders,
finding files and formatting diskettes. When you click
on a folder, DiskJockey lists all the files in the folder
and displays important file and folder system information.
DiskJockey can be easily configured to display information
in dual list panes (horizontally: two on top, two on the
bottom; or in a vertical setup), making drag & drop
functions, folder contents comparisons and other actions
a breeze and much more efficient. Unlike other dual-pane
file managers however, DiskJockey File Viewer has a third
pane in each column or row which functions as a file viewer.
Click on a file in any of 220 formats and it will be displayed
in the viewer pane. Microsoft Word files are displayed
as Word text, without graphics or fancy formatting but
with the general layout intact. Excel files on the other
hand are displayed with most formatting intact. We tried
a variety of digital image files too, and only managed
to stump DiskJockey with encapsulated postscript (EPS)
graphics files and AutoCAD (DWG) drawing files. All other
common image and graphics formats were fine (BMP, JPG,
TIF, TGA, PSD, etc., etc.).

The mini
browser is quite useful in a variety of situations. The
first web site you browse appears in the viewer pane, but
shift-clicking a link will start a full Internet Explorer
(IE) browser window complete with Favorites and the entire
IE interface.

Clear & Simple
has also paid attention to all the buzz over the past few
years about security and privacy. The encryption and decryption
tool works quickly and well to secure individual files
and folders from prying eyes. Having any kind of encryption
tool ready at hand is great and the fact that this one
is built into the main interface is even better. Select
a file, click encrypt, select a default action (encrypt
permanently or only for the current DiskJockey session)
type a password, click OK. To open an encrypted file, all
you have to do is select it then click the decrypt button
or right click and select decrypt from the context menu.

DiskJockey
also features a quick little ZIP compression utility. Select
a group of files, click the QZip icon and you'll get an
easy to understand dialog which will quickly help you create
ZIP compatible archives. As usual with ZIP, compression
results vary depending on the compressibility of the files
you've selected, but the thing we like about QZip is that's
it's much simpler and easier to use than full blown utilities
such as WinZIP. In any case, QZip makes creating backup
archives much less of a chore.

Cons: The
FTP integration works well enough, but you have to manually
switch between ASCII and binary transfer modes, something
which is automatically detected and switched in most other
FTP clients. You can't select an image in the viewer pane
and set it as your desktop image, a function which is commonly
provided in other file viewers. Program preference settings
are scattered partly in a drop-down menu and partly in
an options dialog; the UI designer should always insist
that this stuff go into a single tab- or list-style dialog.
The file loading progress bar doesn't always clear after
a file has finished loading into the viewer; the problem
is intermittent and doesn't affect use. There's no Back
arrow or directory Up arrow in the file list panes which
means you've got to use the mouse to navigate directories.
Drag & Drop is not fully supported, e.g., you can't
drag & drop between file list panes, only between a
list pane and a folder pane. Word files are displayed without
formatting—text only—although basic layout
is retained.

Pros: Fast.
Real fast. Network access is quick, local access is quicker,
and the whole program feels solid and reliable. No file
access delays of any kind. Very stable operation with quick
redraws and list pane updates. Easy to navigate menus.
Manual (F5) refresh of list and folder panes. Robust file
viewer which handles all commonly available formats. There's
nothing quite like being able to browse a list of files,
viewing each one in turn, performing file management tasks
as you go, all without leaving the program. You can choose
between a native DiskJockey context menu or the Windows
default context menu and switch on the fly. Viewer runs
on top of Internet Explorer so you can switch to the IE
file viewer at any time and without leaving the DiskJockey
viewer pane. DiskJockey viewer pane automatically resizes
image displays to fit the viewer pane. As a general purpose
file manager and viewer, DiskJockey File Viewer v4 will
serve most people's needs. Recommended.